Soon Do Seonhwa laughed awkwardly, saying, “Ahahah.”
—Guiin. You don’t need to worry about it at all. The Gwaeoggong already died and crossed over to the world of the dead, so a lot has changed about it. Right away, the size is different, and the fact that it had offspring is different too. So there won’t be that final curse either.
The Gwaeoggong in the legend was said to be large enough to wrap around the roof of a thatched house, but the centipede yokai they encountered in the mountains today was enormous enough to cause a landslide. Moreover, there was no record of it using “poison” in the legend, but it did this time.
Originally, many things change when you cross over to the world of the dead, and since so much time has passed, the yokai’s final curse would also be different—no, it wouldn’t exist at all, Do Seonhwa asserted.
So he absolutely didn’t need to worry, didn’t need to care at all, and the Guiin shouldn’t feel any burden whatsoever—these assurances continued on and on. Sim Seowoo had to answer that he understood, so she could stop talking.
Actually, he had stopped caring the moment he confirmed there was no red mark, but Do Seonhwa was so restless that it made him reconsider it instead. But anyway, from the moment the condition of “marital” was attached, wasn’t it not something he needed to worry about?
…Sim Seowoo shook his head to dismiss the question. Why was he even thinking about this? And around that time, Do Seonhwa seemed to have barely pulled herself together as she changed the subject.
—Anyway! I’ll come looking for you soon, so please wait a moment. Do you see any buildings nearby you could enter? On the map, it shows there’s a shelter in that area…
“Ah, yes. I see it.”
—That’s a relief! If you wait there, I’ll come as quickly as possible!
Even though it was summer, the mountain nights were cold, so it would be better to wait indoors. And clearly establishing the meeting point would prevent them from missing each other.
Although the task of moving the collapsed Cheon Yijae to the shelter followed, he was thinking he could just move slowly when Do Seonhwa’s worried urging was added.
—Ah, but Guiin. It would be better to hurry a bit. It’s almost the Hour of the Ox, so the ghosts on the mountain might run wild. They’re petty ghosts that wouldn’t dare approach when Sojunim is awake, but since he’s unconscious…
It was a worry that because Cheon Yijae had collapsed, he might not be able to chase away ghosts. Sim Seowoo pondered whether he should laugh or not at Do Seonhwa’s remark that seemed to treat him like ghost repellent, but in the end just answered that he understood.
‘Right, rather than leaving an unconscious person in a chilly place, it would be better to move inside quickly.’
After ending the communication, Sim Seowoo, having gathered his resolve, stood up. It would be too much to carry Cheon Yijae on his back, so he decided to support him and move instead.
He had felt it when he was embraced by him, but his build was quite larger than he’d thought. Strictly speaking, Cheon Yijae wasn’t small in appearance to begin with. He was taller than himself, had broader shoulders, and especially his legs stretched out long and slender.
Yet, strangely, he had been flustered when held as if trapped in Cheon Yijae’s arms. Why was he surprised every time he recognized that he was bigger than himself? Was it because he’d heard that he didn’t eat well? As if he unconsciously perceived him as small…
Because he’s younger than me, I naturally think his build should be smaller too?
‘This is a bit of an old-fashioned mindset.’
Sim Seowoo coolly assessed his own thinking and tried to push away the idle thoughts. Thinking about Cheon Yijae’s build for no reason kept making him recall the moment of being embraced, making him feel strange.
Along with it, the cry that Cheon Yijae had let out at the end echoed in his ears.
‘Hyung!’
Though it was an appropriate expression age-wise, it was a word he had never thought Cheon Yijae would use toward him. No, it seemed like he wouldn’t use such an address to anyone, not just himself.
Moreover, the fear that had filled the eyes looking at him at that time…
None of it made sense, but the deeper he fell into thought, the slower his walking pace became, so he decided to focus on getting to the shelter for now. Since it wasn’t easy to support and move an unconscious person, he carefully watched each step he took forward.
Though the mountain air was chilly, by the time he arrived at the shelter, Sim Seowoo felt hot enough to sweat.
“Haah…”
Thud, barely entering indoors, Sim Seowoo laid Cheon Yijae on the floor and then collapsed beside him himself. Come to think of it, he had also been sitting exhausted from using up his purification power just before the Guiyeok collapsed, but after recovering briefly while unconscious, he had done this kind of exercise immediately after getting up.
However, Sim Seowoo raised his upper body again without time to rest. Under the shelter’s light, Cheon Yijae’s pale face stood out even more.
He searched the shelter and brought back clean cloth and water, carefully examining Cheon Yijae’s upper body. He slightly pushed down the dark gray dopo and checked inside the black shirt that had been torn through by the yokai’s teeth.
He clearly remembered blood pouring out profusely…
“…It’s not that deep?”
Though blood had dried into a dark red color around the wound, it wasn’t gaping open as expected. It even looked quite healed, which was bewildering.
Was the yokai’s attack power really weakened because it had lost its Hyungok, just as Do Seonhwa said? Indeed, the skin hadn’t turned black and rotted at all.
At Heun, he’d learned that combat-type shamans basically had strong bodies and their own recovery abilities. Since they had to confront ghosts directly, they refined their spiritual power to strengthen their bodies.
Especially since Cheon Yijae was strong against Ghost Energy, maybe he wasn’t seriously hurt by the yokai’s attack. It was fortunate that the injury wasn’t as serious as he’d worried, but…
Then why exactly can’t he wake up until now?
Sim Seowoo was puzzled, but decided to wipe the blood first. He dampened a towel with water, placed one hand beside Cheon Yijae’s shoulder, and carefully wiped the affected area with his other hand. It was a cautious task performed while leaning his upper body over him.
As he was busily wiping away the blood.
“…What.”
Cheon Yijae woke up.
Perhaps due to just regaining consciousness, his voice was very low. At the hoarse voice that was even slightly cracked, Sim Seowoo quietly shifted his gaze and soon met hazy, unfocused eyes.
Cheon Yijae, as if his focus wasn’t properly set, only blinked slowly a couple of times, then faintly smiled.
“Ah, it’s a dream…”
His sharp eyes relaxed loosely, and the smile formed as his lips softly drew an arc was extremely unfamiliar. It was the first time seeing a smile that wasn’t a sneer, and the sight of someone who always kept their edge sharpened now relaxing languidly looked almost defenseless.
Sim Seowoo was puzzled. Cheon Yijae’s reaction was bewildering, but normally when you open your eyes in an unfamiliar situation, don’t you usually wonder, ‘Is this a dream?’
But why was Cheon Yijae asserting it was a dream?
Just like someone who had dreamed this kind of dream several times before.
“…”
No, why am I appearing in Cheon Yijae’s dreams in the first place?
And smiling so relaxedly like that… could he be mistaking him for someone else? Looking at how his ash-colored eyes were hazily clouded, the probability of that seemed high.
Sim Seowoo gazed down at Cheon Yijae silently. If he thought it was a dream, maybe he should just leave it as is without correcting him. He seemed like he would fall back asleep, so he didn’t really want to wake him by speaking to him.
…Honestly, he didn’t know what reaction to have in this situation, so he chose the direction of just staying silent. At least it seemed he wasn’t in pain anywhere, which was fortunate.
However, because the distance with Cheon Yijae was close, Sim Seowoo quietly backed away. Though he was in the middle of treating him, it was almost a position of covering the other person, so he tried to move to the side, when Cheon Yijae moved.
As if to catch the retreating Sim Seowoo, he reached out both hands as if to embrace his neck.
“Why has it been so long since…”
However, the moment the wide sleeves of the dopo flowed down along his wrists—rustle—Cheon Yijae hesitated. Sim Seowoo thought he was looking at his own hands, and after a brief silence settled heavily.
“Fuck, it’s not a dream.”
Cheon Yijae sprang aside as if bouncing away and got up.
The atmosphere of Cheon Yijae, who had raised his upper body to sit up, changed in an instant. He glared at Sim Seowoo with his face crumpled in a frown, having already returned to his original fierce momentum, and demanded answers.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“…You’re awake. How’s your body?”
“That’s not what I’m asking you to say right now—! Haah…”
Cheon Yijae buried his face in his left hand. He seemed about to get angry but intuitively realized the conversation wouldn’t get through and just gave up altogether, which made Sim Seowoo a bit dumbfounded.
It seemed Cheon Yijae was annoyed because he’d mistaken him for the intimate person in his dream, but wasn’t it the responsibility of the one who saw wrong first? Moreover, he had only been wiping his wound.
Though he felt wronged, it wasn’t that he couldn’t understand his reaction at all. The action of Cheon Yijae reaching out both hands to catch the other person just before… looked somewhat like he was acting spoiled. The feeling of being coquettish, asking to stay close to him.
Realizing that Cheon Yijae acted like that with people he was close to, Sim Seowoo cleared his throat, feeling like he’d glimpsed a very private, personal domain.
